Not My Phone!
There’s a rather amusing picture on slate.com today. It has one red larger phone with a slideout keyboard and an “angry face” leaping onto an equally pugnacious (and rather smug-looking) smaller blue phone that obviously doesn’t share the slideout feature. You don’t really have to look at the title in order to get that the caricature is portraying the new Google (Nasdaq: GOOG) G1 and the Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL) iPhone.
Because quite frankly I like the picture, I wrote about the topic earlier, and I’ve vowed to write as little about the financial crisis weighing down on us as possible, I’m dedicating this blog to “The Cell Phone Wars” as slate so aptly puts it. (And yes, I’m also choosing this topic because my original hesitant optimism of yesterday was just proven unfounded as lawmakers go back to arguing over the plan they just recently expressed such confidence in. In short, I’m bitter.)
So, moving right along, it’s onto the cell phone wars we go…
Reading comments posted on the net yesterday made it quite obvious how people feel about Apple. The company and its products can inspire intense devotion or hatred, depending on what side of the spectrum you happen to fall in. And believe me, there are two easily identified fringe groups:
- The Apple following, iPhone toting, Mac users who truly do seem to believe that Steve Jobs is the next coming. Not to be offensive, but I really don’t believe the description is far off the mark. Just go take a poll of Apple users, and you’ll find that many - though certainly not all - are fiercely loyal to the brand with something quite like religious fanaticism.
- Then there are the sometimes equally intense “haters” who seriously can’t find anything better to do with their lives than complain about Apple. Perhaps I’m judging them too harshly. Maybe they’re persecuted by Apple-lovers on a daily basis. Perhaps they were forced by cruel parents to use a Mac as a teenager, when all they really wanted was a Dell. I don’t know. But if Steve Jobs is the Messiah to the faithful Apple-ites, than to the other extreme, he’s Satan incarnate.
The truth though, is that Apple and its products don’t make up that much of the overall markets they operate in. They’re much like a niche category that is widely known and talked about, but still only brings in profits from a certain kind of clientele; in this case, that would be hipsters, trendsetters, and Starbucks drinkers. In fact, there is a direct correlation between Macs and Starbucks, for anybody who was wondering.
Believe it or not, I’m not trying to bash Apple. Regardless of their smaller clientele base, and the fraction of phone and computer profits they take in, they’re doing anything but badly for themselves. Case-in-point: even while everybody’s panicking about the next Great Depression, they’re still trading at above $125. However, in the spirit of fairness, I also have to admit that I’m not a Mac user. I love my PC, even if it is a Dell.
But according to one of my coworkers, who uses both Macs and PCs - and just happens to be a Graphic Designer - the G1 will probably ultimately win this particular phone war. In fact, let me quote her on Apple altogether:
“The perception that Macs are more secure is actually false. Apparently, they have a lot of security holes too, but it’s just not being exploited because they make up a small percentage of the PC market, whereas Windows users make up… 90% and are therefore better targets of viruses.”
–Cool Graphic Design Coworker*
*Names have been changed to protect the innocent from fringe Apple-ites
http://www.smartprofitsreport.com/archives/2008/the-technology-a-diamond-in-a-rough.html
Friday, September 26, 2008 — by Jeannette Di Louie, Assistant Editor of Mt. Vernon Research
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